OMG! Warriors, Blood and Treasure in the 21st Century?

I am fascinated by the conservative wordsmiths who capture feelings in soundbites. Who would of thought that the Bush Administration and their conservative media echo chamber would resurrect a Medieval sounding phrase - Blood and Treasure - that seems more of the thinking of the Third Reich than a modern democracy; an unquenchable thirst for power that the sacrifices of other people's lives and wealth cannot buy.

And conservatives express their mock sorrow over the loss of our "warriors" in these misguided wars. Crocodile tears. "Warriors"? When was the last time America had warriors? Didn't they use to be Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines? How many New Mexicans have died or been crippled by these wars? The local media never tell the cost at home. Simple bad news like that doesn't sell papers or radio ads.

Blood? Whose blood, whose lives are sacrificed in the pursuit of national wars? Not the leaders who proclaimed the wars, not their children today. Apparently our immortal American corporations don't bleed, either. Our "national" blood? Sounds deep and mythic. Bullshit.

Treasure? What is treasure? Hoards of wealth held by the top 1% which includes the leaders who proclaimed war? And whose "treasure" did they spend and waste? Not their's. Apparently all of ours, though, all of America's, except for the war profiteers, speculators and politicians who paid nothing and escape scrutiny. Now we are told to give up national healthcare insurance and social security to pay the bills. More and deeper bullshit and hypocrisy. If this is what Mitt Romney and his ilk offer us, God save us all.

Why can't the punditocracy and the corporate media talk about the reality of death and debt that the Bush Wars cost us? Are we so blind to the truth? Why are they so blind?

A sad  measure of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the idea that we, I mean all Americans and especially the poor and middle class, could pay off the Bush War debts with a simple tax of one dollar per gallon of gasoline and diesel to be sunsetted after 15 years. Just 15 years! Has anyone talked about the cost of war in such direct terms? That's all it would take to pay off our 21st Century Chickenhawks' wasted fantasies.

Yeah, the Neo-cons, and the fantasists of the New American Century had a couple of free wars that we'll pay off for the rest of our lives. Gotta love those patriotic Americans! Grover Norquist and his Right-wing pledgers promise to make the American government so weak that it could be drowned in a bathtub. In reality, they must be and old-fashioned Fifth Column for China today, destroying America from the inside with their lies and waste.

Will we pay that tax? No. Will the American Rich pay for their triumphs? Not yet. But having squandered our blood and treasure on useless wars instead of building a great country, they will. At this rate, America will become a large, third-world country, fit for dictators and oligarchs to roost on. Won't they be proud citizens of the world!

To paraphrase Malcolm Gladwell, the American Rich would get so much more value by paying higher taxes and living in a better country than they will ever enjoy as latter-day princes in a global wasteland. In the meantime, we have to choose how to pay for our wars and create a better life for our children. The current crop of Republican leaders will do neither.

The People's Voice is Scary?

Why did the Greek Prime Minister's proposal to put the EU bailout and austerity plan to a referendum - a vote by the people - cause the stock markets across the globe to drop?

Did the stock brokers believe that the citizens of Greece might vote against austerity and the World Bank solution and cause the Eurozone to collapse financially?

Perhaps the World Bank solution to public debt is wrong. Contract the economy to fix everything? Why is national stimulus and growth so scary an alternative?

Even Governor Martinez believes in public spending to create jobs - through capital outlay, rebuilding and expanding infrastructure.

Why would it work in New Mexico, but it won't work in Greece?

Republicans + Federal Stimulus Funding = Failure, you betcha

The US House and Senate Republicans have wasted a year blithering about our federal debt. Today we need jobs! Honest jobs.

Former Representative Heather Wilson, now candidate for US Senate, is quoted saying that the expense of the federal stimulus programs started by the Bush Administration has been "jaw dropping." Whatever. The feds have poured trillions into shoring up banks and helping states maintain jobs. New Mexico used some of the ARRA recovery money two years ago to help pay public school teachers. It worked! Well, except for the banks part.

Our Albuquerque Public Schools are looking at a deficit that they cannot cover from their own revenues. Costs will have to be cut to match available revenues. Teachers that leave or retire will not be replaced this year. Classes will get larger, again. Some electives will not be offered.

In states that have Republican governors, the outcomes have been more severe and threatening to any economic recovery. They have already laid off hundreds of thousands of public employees, and especially teachers. Given weak revenue forecasts for the next year, there will be more layoffs before the 2012 election.

The loss of that many middle-class public sector jobs has more than outweighed the benefits of the federal spending. So the Republican governors prove themselves right again! Our government does not make jobs, it destroys them!

Now, let me get this no-nothing conservative philosophy right: America will create jobs when we cut spending. There is no logic to that position. The states that have had to cut public employees have not seen a private sector rebound to make up for those losses. Those states are lead by Republican governors.

Even after those states cut taxes on the ultra-rich, they and the corporations have not "created" new jobs. "Job creators?" NOT!

Oh, they argue that it will take time for "the Market" to accept the new reality of lower taxes on the Rich and more unemployed teachers to respond. In the meantime, a lot of teachers and others don't have work, don't have benefits, and are struggling.

The Republican-led block on funding the FAA is another example proving that cutting spending cuts jobs. During the shutdown of the FAA for lack of new funding, critical functions of the agency were preserved, but non-critical jobs like planning, design and construction of airports and other facilities were shut down. Tens of thousands of construction workers were "furloughed" without pay. The FAA quit paying its bills. A lot of private companies were hurt, and many more were frightened by the prospect that their next job for the FAA was dead. That righteous fiasco pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of the domestic US economy at a critical time in this Great Republican Recession. One consequence of ignorant Republican economics is to drive America into another ditch.

The truly sad background to all this ranting and stalling is the Republican's determination that President Obama will look bad - see, he didn't create any jobs! And look at all the money the Obama Administration "wasted" on so-called stimulus projects. The Republicans wouldn't allow the federal government - the spender of last resort - to spend enough to create or preserve jobs.

In the meantime, US corporations are reporting astonishing profits during a recession, and eye-popping amounts of cash reserves! With corporate profits up, shareholders (the Rich) are doing quite well, thank you very much. Speculators are thriving on commodities like oil, copper, food and more. And the Repubicans (or as one critic calls them, the Republicons) have not offered a single bill that would create a single job today or encourage private sector spending on new projects. Maybe in 2014 or so, after the next Republican is elected president.

The solution? Print and spend money as fast as Washington can! Every day the Republicans delay any solution that would create jobs, is another day that Americans suffer without work. Every day they delay committing to a "Marshall Plan" for the US, to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, our roads and bridges, our water and sewer systems, our ports and more crumble further, creating greater drains on our economy.

Federal spending directly and indirectly creates jobs that private industry is unwilling to do. Putting people to work at decent wages supports demand for goods and services, helping to lift the economy. The federal government has become the buyer of last resort, our last hope to kick-start the US economy back to life!

I'm Tired (of Cranky Conservatives)

Full credit for the original post to Robert Hall (not Bill Cosby or any other character), a Vietnam War Marine veteran who wrote the original column in February 2009.  I think he is misguided and doesn't know political philosophy or history based on the way he wrote his blog. In my version, I believe I am more true to the facts.

I'm Tired

I’ll be 57 soon. I didn’t inherit my job or my income. As one of the 99%, I worked to get where I am. I don’t make $16,826/hour like the CEO of Wallyworld and probably never will, even with inflation. Given the Great Republican Recession, there’s no retirement in sight, and I’m tired. Very tired.

I’m tired of being told that I have to “spread the wealth around” to people who don’t earn a living but skim the cream. I’m tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people richer than Croesus.

I’m tired of being told that banks can’t afford to lend money for construction or restructure mortgages. Sure, if they were losing money or undercapitalized, I’m willing to accept that. But if they sold paperless mortgages for McMansions at three times the price of our townhouse, for customers with one-third of my salary, then let the rightwing Republicans in Congress and the clown in the White House explain why they repealed the Glass-Steaggal Act that addressed the corruption of the Market of the 1920s.

I’m tired of being told how evil America is by rightwing opinionators, preachers and politicians who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers to lie, cheat and steal, and punish the weak. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the religious freedom and women’s rights of Saudi Arabia, the economy of Zimbabwe, the freedom of the press of China, the crime and violence of Mexico, the tolerance for gay people of Iran, and the freedom of speech of Venezuela. Won’t Brazil be beautiful here? Oh, wait! We’re already less tolerant and less equal than our southern neighbors who don’t speak English.

I'm tired of 21st Century Republicans saying that the only way to create jobs is to reduce spending and taxes on the Rich. America boomed in the 1950s when the Rich paid a marginal tax rate of 90%, That was under Eisenhower!

I’m tired of being told that Christianity is a “Religion of Peace,” when every day I can read stories of Christian men raping their wives, sons and daughters because the Bible tells them to “submit.”

I believe “a man should be judged by the content of his character, not by the color of his skin.” I’m tired of being told that “race doesn’t matter” by Republicans in the post-racial and highly ethno-centric world of Senator Mitch McConnell (R, Kentucky), when it’s all that matters in rightwing hate radio, condescending commentary about the President, unspoken White privilege, government contract set-asides, tolerance for the voter suppressing laws that hurt minorities more than anyone, and in the apotheosis of conservative black politicians who don’t know China has the Bomb (since 1963, and nuclear power, even). I think it’s very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. I just wish the President said more about freedom and the individual under the pressure of the corporatocracy and an all-knowing but blind Market. The Market is not God.

I’m tired of a news media that ignores secret political campaign funding by the Rich, including hate-filled smear media and fear-mongering. I’m glad the media thought that President Bush’s mountain biking while taking more vacation days than any president in living memory was a waste of taxpayers’ dollars, but that President Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress, I’m tired of a cowed news media that dropped the story of Bush’s military records, and repeated the lies of the self-proclaimed “Swiftboat Veterans” against Kerry, that glammed Palin for vice president despite her obvious inexperience, and takes the current crop of Republican candidates for president seriously.

Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? I haven’t a clue. I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, but it didn’t matter since he won the vote of the Supremes controlled by partisan Republicans Justices.

I’m tired of being told that due to our “addiction to oil” we must let Saudi Arabian Wahabi Muslims use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate towards the West across the world, while no American Jewish or Christian sect is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach our American love and tolerance.

I’m tired of being told I must lower my living standard to balance the federal budget, which no one is allowed to debate. If everyone had the Ecological Footprint I do, we would need six Earths to sustain us.

I’m tired of the destruction that addiction and alcoholism cause. I’m tired of the criminalization of addiction; the faith that addiction is a moral failing. I don’t think gay people choose to be gay, but I'm damn sure druggies chose to take drugs once, searching for something missing in their lives and then became addicted. And I’m tired of the unwillingness of “the richest country on Earth” to help addicts find recovery. 


I’m tired of illegal aliens being hired by cheap businessmen and politicians, especially the ones who can afford to pay US wages and live on white collar crime. What’s next? Calling small businessmen that hire and abuse undocumented immigrants “job creators” when they are just hypocrites. And, no, I’m not against Hispanics or the Rich. I think most of them are Christians and it’s been a few hundred years since Christians wanted to kill me for my religion. I’m willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic who can speak English, doesn’t have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military. Those are the citizens we need. I just wish the Rich believed they were citizens of the United States and not "the World."

I’m tired of chickenhawk conservatives, politicians and newsreaders, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, praising our rightwing leaders and their wars. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth people better than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. We need better, more honest leaders, military and civilian.

Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure, but we prosecute them for war crimes if we catch them. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years—and still are? Not even close. So here’s the deal. I’ll let Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo when we bring Muslims extremists to trial. America is better than that, and we know better. I trust our military leaders. Torture doesn't work, and it inspires torture of our troops and allies.

I’m tired of conservatives telling me their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. But listen to anyone but Fox News—bums are Republicans. And I’m tired of people telling me we need bi-partisanship. I live in New Mexico where Republicans would steal the vote without a second thought. I notice that the tax cheats in New York and Washington are just non-partisan opportunists who would sell out our country for a handful of silver.

I’m tired of hearing wealthy radio preachers, commentators, talking heads, and politicians of the virtuous Right talk about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I’m tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

Speaking of poor, I’m tired of hearing people who live on less than $5 a day for food called moochers and welfare queens. The majority of Americans weren’t poor in 1970, but today we are, but don’t know we’ve become “poor.” We’re still “middle class” just like the banksters and money handlers who receive over $200,000 per year for manipulating paper. The leaders of the class war have to keep changing the definition of rich to keep the dollars flowing up and keep the 99% ignorant.

I’m real tired of people who don’t take responsibility for their lives and actions, and for their hate-filled speech. I’m tired of hearing them blame the government for their problems.

Yes, I’m damn tired. But I’m tired of getting older. Because, mostly, I can’t make the difference my children will in cleaning up our sorry mess. Like borrowing a truck and trashing it. Our oceans are dying and CO2 lingers in the atmosphere for centuries. I’m sorry that we’re leaving a less livable world for my granddaughters and grandsons.

New Mexico Native is not a veteran and never served in the New Mexico state legislature or anywhere near Santa Fe. He blogs at NewMexicoReview.blogspot.com